In the current development of global economy, product suppliers by necessity tend to involve other parties to provide specialized services in the production and delivery of products to end consumers. Typically, such specialized services would for example include the manufacturing of products in a factory as well as logistics services for storing and transporting products from the factory to the end consumer. A consequence of this is that the product supplier does not have full physical control over the product in its journey from manufacture to the end consumer.
Product suppliers have a large responsibility for their products, sometimes over the whole product life cycle. This is particularly true for products that have a safety or security critical function. Other kinds of products may have important business functions and therefore be associated with great economic values. In general, it is a property for virtually all products that they carry the trademark and the good name of the product supplier and also for this reason the product suppliers are usually anxious to see to their products also after purchase.
Products that comprise hardware and software, i.e. computerized or other computer related products, are particularly sensitive to tampering and it is important that the product cannot be manipulated by a third party. Furthermore, with such products it is often important to update software and for natural reasons of economy it is preferred to update the software via a data communications network such as the Internet or by means of some other distributed method. In the updating procedure it is important to know that the product is authentic, i.e. that it is a product for which the product supplier has a responsibility.
While there are a number of known methods for authentication, there is still a need for improvements with regard to the balance between security and convenience in operation. The latter concept also includes the concept of availability, which is used herein to refer to the ability to distribute and give service to a large number of computer related hardware units in an efficient and cost effective manner.